When January comes around, and your real tree has served its purpose, it’s always a shame to throw it away. Here I can help you decide what you can and can’t do with a Christmas tree after the holiday season.
You can not replant a Christmas tree without roots after cutting it off. You can take cuttings from it, place them in some rooting hormone, and then plant it into compost. However, it’s not always successful, even for experienced gardeners.
What can you do with a real Christmas tree after use?
- Take a cutting straight away after it’s been chopped down to try and regrow from the tree.
- Use the tree as log firewood and the branches as kindling.
- Make wood ornaments, candle holders, and next year’s tree decorations.
- Use it as an animal cage interior or outside habitat for the animals.
- Use the pine needles as a room fragrance.
- Contact your local garden centre or recycling tree service companies for recycling. They will turn it into compost, bark, firewood, mulch or for taken to wildlife sanctuaries for their habitats.
What can’t you do with a real Christmas tree after use?
- Replant the tree in its form back into the ground
- You can’t take cuttings from it if it’s old because it will not regrow.
- Do not burn your Christmas tree. Leave that to the professionals. Depending on the type, Christmas trees can release poisonous toxins and burn extremely fast, causing a fire hazard.
- Leave it to rot; leaving a Christmas tree is not advised as it will take many years. By this point, if you do this each year, your garden will be coved in dead trees.
Can I use a pine Christmas tree for inside burning?
Do not use pine wood for burning inside as it’s creosote and will leave your fireplace sticky and sooty. Pinewood from a Christmas tree is best used for outdoor fires only.
How do I get rid of a real Christmas tree?
You can chop it up and put it in your garden waste bin, get your local waste management team to collect it, or recycle it by contacting your local garden centre or specific tree recycling companies.
Advice: when you buy your Christmas tree, ask the seller if they offer a recycling service.
How to get rid of a fake Christmas tree?
You can break up the fake Christmas tree and put it in your bin or sell it to someone else.
All in all, you can’t replant a Christmas tree unless you take a cutting from a freshly cut down tree and even then, the tree may not grow.